Manufacturing of a Novel Sensor Based CuO@Graphene Catalyst for Voltammetric Detection of Prednisolone as an Important Doping Agent in Sport

Selective and sensitive measurement of Prednisolone is vital for its routine analysis in pharmaceutical formulations and doping control in sports. In present research, an effective sensing platform for analysis of prednisolone in body fluids based on CuO@graphene nano-sized (Gr–CuO) catalyst was suggested. The electrochemical sensor was fabricated by deposition of the Gr–CuO on the GCE that provides a remarkably improved sensitivity for the square wave voltammetry detection of prednisolone drug. The uniform distribution of nano-sized CuO NPs led to superior electrocatalyst property, thereby maximizing the prednisolone determination abilities of the suggested sensor. The presented sensing strategy illustrates the acceptable linear response in the range of concentrations of 0.01–25 µM with a low detection limit of 0.008 µM owing to synergetic effect of Gr nanosheets and CuO NPs. The RSD value for prednisolone measurement using seven various GCEs was estimated as 3.4%. The anti-interference investigations confirmed that the different common biological interference such as glucose, dopamine, uric acid, ascorbic aide, xanthine and hypoxanthine did not affect the quantitative analysis of prednisolone. The validity of the Gr–CuO/GCE showed that the accurate detection of prednisolone in the body fluids of some athletes.